Social Adaptability
Games that through their design easily can be modified for varying social contexts.
This pattern is a still a stub.
Contents
Examples
Using the pattern
Being able to control when one wants to play is an important aspect of Social Adaptability, which can be a question of how to support Interruptibility. This can be achieved through Drop-In/Drop-Out, Game Pauses, or Proxy Players depending on other features of a game (as if it is a Multiplayer Game), but is also one of the abilities the use of Game Masters can bring to a game design. In addition to considering the possibility to interrupt gameplay, Social Adaptability can also be supported by letting players decide how long the game should take; Negotiable Game Sessions and Negotiable Game Instance Duration can support this.
Where one can play a game also affects Social Adaptability. The strongest way to support this form of Social Adaptability is through Ubiquitous Gameplay but another way is through Configurable Gameplay Areas in Self-Facilitated Games. Minimalized Social Weight can also help make games possible to play in a wider range of environment since the game actions and events produced by games can be disturbing in certain environments (depending on both the actions and the environment). Self-Reported Positioning allows players to be flexible about where they are in the game compared to where they actually are in the real world and thereby support some Social Adaptability.
What interaction a game should provide is also part of Social Adaptability. While Difficulty Levels provide a small amount of influence to players in how challenging a game should be, Player Decided Rule Setup can give more power and granularity in how they can influence the gameplay experience. Free Game Element Manipulation and Self-Facilitated Games gives even more power to the players, but Game Masters can provide the same feature if player power is not wanted in this sense. Examples why this could be the case include that it would cause Excise, remove the possibility of Surprises, or that the players are not believed to be able to uphold the game system.
There are many patterns that can weaken or remove Social Adaptability in games. Somewhat paradoxically, Multiplayer Games work against Social Adaptability since a player must consider the other players' opinions on when and how to play. Challenging Gameplay can provide thresholds for novice players or those that cannot for some reason dedicate all their abilities to a specific play or game session; Player Physical Prowess does this as well but for physical activities. Games that require players attention continuously, i.e. those with The Show Must Go On but without being mitigated by Game Pauses or Drop-In/Drop-Out gameplay, also make it difficult to fit their gameplay into environments with changing social demands. Mediated Gameplay quite naturally lead to some restrictions on Social Interaction between players and thereby make enacting any possible Social Adaptability more difficult. Dedicated Game Facilitators typically do this as well but also restrict modifying or ignoring rules unless explicitly design to allow this - Game Masters are an exception to this since they often have power over changing the rules and game states freely.
A somewhat unlikely candidate for causing problems with Social Adaptability is Changes in Perception of Real World Phenomena due to Gameplay. However, games with this pattern are based on players already having some perceptions of the phenomena the game design focuses upon. This restricts the number of players that the design can work for and this cannot easily be changed by players in direct conjunction to playing these types of games.
Consequences
The primary consequence of Social Adaptability is to provide players with a Freedom of Choice regarding when and how they are to play a game.
Relations
Can Instantiate
Can Modulate
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Can Be Instantiated By
Difficulty Levels, Drop-In/Drop-Out, Free Game Element Manipulation, Game Pauses, Game Masters, Interruptibility, Minimalized Social Weight, Negotiable Game Sessions, Negotiable Game Instance Duration, Player Decided Rule Setup, Proxy Players, Self-Facilitated Games, Self-Reported Positioning, Ubiquitous Gameplay
Configurable Gameplay Areas together with Self-Facilitated Games
Can Be Modulated By
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Possible Closure Effects
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Potentially Conflicting With
Challenging Gameplay, Changes in Perception of Real World Phenomena due to Gameplay, Dedicated Game Facilitators, Mediated Gameplay, Multiplayer Games, Player Physical Prowess, The Show Must Go On
History
New pattern created in this wiki.
References
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Acknowledgements
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